When it comes to playing a new starting quarterback – not just for a week or two but the foreseeable future – there are all kinds of challenges that follow along. Coaches have to forge a new relationship, modifying teaching and coaching styles in a way that are tailored to the new quarterback. Receivers have to build chemistry, the offensive line has to learn the sounds of a new cadence. Everything that was once familiar is now new all over again.
It goes without saying that the quarterback is the leader of the offense and ostensibly a leader of the team, but what about the defense? A unit often practicing somewhere else on the practice fields, often on the sidelines somewhere else, often talking about something else ahead of doing something else.
So how does a new quarterback win over the defensive huddle? How does the biggest piece of the offense get the veterans of a defense to buy into him? If they’re going to go to bat for their quarterback, it sure doesn’t hurt any if they like and respect the guy. Especially in the case of true freshman Drew Allar, less than a year on campus but likely set to become Penn State’s new starting quarterback. [Related: From One High-Profile Prospect to the Next, Hackenberg Reflects and Gives Drew Allar Some Advice]
“Character,” Penn State safety Ji’Ayir Brown said. “The biggest trait any human being can have. That’s trying to lead, to have the courage to be a leader. And guys like Sean [Clifford] and Drew [Allar] are guys who have great character. And when you have great character you earn a great amount of respect from your guys, from your peers and from your coaching staff. That’s how you win over not just a defense, that’s how you win over a team. When guys can respect you on and off the field.
“It’s not something you learn. It’s not something you do. It’s something that naturally just happens it naturally grows on you. Guys like Sean, guys like Drew, like myself, like PJ [Mustipher], have great character have great leadership qualities that becomes a gravitational pull towards the other players around us. Personally, I never put myself in a leadership role it just kind of gravitated towards me. And it’s up to the guys in that role to take on that responsibility.”
Of course it’s not as though Penn State’s defense wouldn’t do its job simply because it didn’t like the starting quarterback, but there’s something to be said for the ability a quarterback has to pull an entire team together. For the likes of Allar, his high-profile status as one of the nation’s top quarterbacking prospects doesn’t hurt his resume any, but the ability to him to get teammates to buy into the development and buy into what he brings to the table will only help his cause.
And the biggest thing a new guy can do? Care as much as the old guys.
“You’ve just gotta have that passion,” defensive tackle PJ Mustipher said. “You gotta have some emotion about you, have some swag, some toughness, because that’s what the defense prides itself on. It gets the defensive guys are riled up when they see a quarterback who has also got that same type of intensity. It’s easy. You don’t got to do much more than that, because we’re gonna have you back regardless, we got everybody’s back in that locker room. But if we look down that sideline and we look on that field an we see you playing with that same type of emotion that we have, the respect is there automatically.”
For defensive end Nick Tarburton that also means not being afraid of the physical aspects of the game.
“I think the biggest thing is just, you know, leadership – just how you kind of establish that and how you portray yourself,” Tarburton added. “I think especially for me a big thing for me is toughness. I want to be able to see, you know, a quarterback that can kind of do it both. Sean, that’s my guy it has been special to have been by his side for these past five years.”
In a perfect world Penn State will find itself scraping Allar off the field a bit less than it did with Clifford, but with a big frame and a fearlessness about his lumbering running style, Allar is going to accumulate his fair share of knocks along the way. As for winning over the offensive huddle, the contrast in the eyes of at least one Nittany Lion comes with a slightly less blood, sweat and tears thought process. Just make plays, kid. Do that and everyone will have your back.
“I really don’t think there’s much more to it than making plays and being confident in himself when he speaks up,” tight end Brenton Strange said. “Make sure you’re speaking up in the in the right way. So I don’t really think there’s much more than to make plays – that’s how you earn respect from any position.”
